Rand back under R18/£ ahead of Bank of England decision

The rand was back under R18 to the pound on Thursday morning, in what is likely to be turbulent day for currencies, with the UK’s central bank scheduled to announce an interest rate decision at 1pm South African time.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney is expected to announce the UK’s monetary policy committee voted to hold the bank rate at 0.5% and its quantitative easing programme at £435bn.

Foreign exchange traders will be looking for clues on whether it will raise its interest rate to 0.75% in August.

The rand was trading at R13.67 to the dollar, R15.81 to the euro and R17.99 to the pound at 6.40am.

Thursday is a quiet day on the JSE results front, but a relatively busy day for economic data.

The Reserve Bank will release its quarterly bulletin at 10am.

Statistics SA is releasing its annual general household survey at 11.30am, which sheds light on how well the government’s electrification, sanitation, education and other services are doing.

This report is accompanied by selected indicators in various metros, and selected development indicators.

Stats SA is also releasing April’s civil cases for debt report at 9am and April’s building statistics at 1pm.